Supermarkets support crackdown on blue badge abuse

A Disabled Drivers Blue Badge

People who use supermarkets such as Aldi, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Lidl will have to be careful where they park, following the major reforms to the Blue Badge Scheme.

Local Transport Minister Norman Baker wrote to all major supermarkets, insisting they do what they could to enforce the scheme on the premises. All supermarkets mentioned have responded positively, and are in support of the Government’s drive to ensure strict enforcement of the parking bays in their car parks.

Mr Baker said: "Many disabled people and disability groups have told me about the problems they have in finding a disabled bay at supermarkets because of their abuse by people who have no justification for parking in reserved spaces.

"I am delighted to have secured the support of the major supermarket groups and to know that they share my view that abuse of Blue Badge parking bays needs to be tackled, protecting customers who rely on such spaces. I hope other large retailers will now follow suit and consider what action they can take to help their Blue Badge customers."

Rising levels of badge fraud means that the facilities used by 2.5 million disabled people who genuinely need to have the parking spaces are not getting the service they need.

Dave Meaden, Chief Executive of Northgate Public Services, said: "The Blue Badge scheme is an essential service for disabled people. We are committed to making it more effective for the millions who rely on it. This innovative programme is focused on enhancing vital local services through preventing abuse, improving delivery and planning for increased demand in the future. In difficult times, it shows that improvements for people really can be achieved through new ways of working and using resources."

The seven supermarkets have said that drivers found abusing designated disabled bays will be issued with parking charge notices in some circumstances, alongside other measures including car park patrols, leafleting of vehicles and requests over in-store tannoys.

Mark Gunter, Group Retail Director of Morrisons, said: "We have always been concerned about the abuse of disabled parking spaces and we will penalise those able-bodied drivers that incorrectly park in spaces allocated for blue-badge drivers. However, we also depend on the public to help us ensure that these parking bays remain available for disabled drivers."

The new badge is said to be harder to forge due to new designing, as well as improved enforcement powers for local authorities.

Following a competitive procurement exercise, Northgate Public Services and Payne Security have been awarded a contract to help make improvements to the Blue Badge scheme, which will include:

Shared administration between authorities including an online eligibility checker and an online application form available via Directgov, resulting in faster renewals, reduced abuse and operational savings;

a secure central database of all Blue Badges on issue and key information on badge holders that will enable fraud prevention and better enforcement;

Gwyn Burr, Sainsbury's Customer Service and Colleague Director, said: "We know the Blue Badge scheme is an issue close to our customers’ hearts. In 2009 we became the first supermarket to actively manage all of the disabled bays within our car parks and this led to a reduction in the misuse of these spaces, a fact recognised by the Baywatch survey last year. We are very pleased to support this campaign."

The new service delivery improvements to the Blue Badge scheme will be operational from 1 January 2012, but the scheme does not cover privately owned car parks. The support of supermarket is considered an important step in ensuring wider enforcement of the scheme.